Building The Metaverse, Part One: The Vision


The longer-term vision of the metaverse is a universe where a massive computer-generated virtual world – or worlds – will be deeply intertwined with the physical world. This will enable humans and things to interact, transact, and collaborate in parallel or in superposition in ways that will mesh real-world activity and simulation in various and increasing indistinguishable ways. The met... » read more

New Robots Require New Ways To Think About Processors


We’re on the cusp of a revolution in robots. After years of relatively moderate growth, sales of commercial and industrial robots are slated to grow by 25% to 35% per year over the next decade, according to Boston Consulting Group, and could reach $260 billion by 2030 to meet the demands of manufacturers, retailers and others to streamline supply chains, enhance safety and boost productivity.... » read more

The Set Top Box Is Getting A Retrofit


Will processors jumpstart 8K? System-on-chip (SoC) designers and home device makers are experimenting with AI techniques to upscale high-definition or even standard-definition programs in a way that looks natural and realistic. Here’s how it works. Rather than stretching an image over a wider battery of pixels (causing pixelation) or filling in the new pixels by extrapolating informatio... » read more

Seven Hardware Advances We Need to Enable The AI Revolution


The potential, positive impact AI will have on society at large is impossible to overestimate. Pervasive AI, however, remains a challenge. Training algorithms can take inordinate amounts of power, time, and computing capacity. Inference will also become more taxing with applications such as medical imaging and robotics. Applied Materials estimates that AI could consume up to 25% of global elect... » read more

What Will Be The Killer App For 5G? Time To Place Your Bets


5G is here. But where will its capabilities soar first? Here are my guesses for where the breakthroughs could occur along with factors that might hold it back. 1. Supply Chain. The world’s 5,300+ plus cargo ships carry 90% of the world’s freight and can collectively hold 1.97 billion deadweight tons of cargo. 5G—delivered through private networks or secure slices of public networks—c... » read more

Where Do The Chips Fall In The Energy Transformation?


The energy industry is in the first stages of a once-in-a-century transformation. And one of the most important aspects of this shift is that EVs, solar farms grid equipment, and appliances will inherently rely more on digital technologies. As Hamed Heyhat, General Manager of Grid Automation at General Electric, says, “Decarbonization cannot happen without digitization of the grid.” So h... » read more

The Future Of Smart Cameras Is 64-Bit Processing


The future of smart camera technology brings with it profound transformations in the way we interact with each other and the world around us. From smart cities that are safer and more efficient to rainforests that are monitored for illegal logging, the increasing need for advanced vision technology is growing. Diverse and complex use cases leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine lea... » read more

Seeking Scale, Semiconductor Companies Embrace IoT Framework


Fragmentation has long been the IoT’s greatest impediment. Even before the "Internet of Things" entered popular lexicon, infinite opportunity had turned into infinite complexity as companies raced to deliver solutions without any common technological framework or set of standards that might have ensured that software could be ported between technologies or hardware platforms. To bring orde... » read more

Six Things We Might Need For Pervasive Computing


There is little doubt that digital technology will become more pervasive than it is even now in the coming decades. Organizations like the Exponential Group argue that digital should be the first step in sustainability, estimating that hardware and software could help reduce emissions by 15% by 2030 and beyond by helping fine-tune buildings, factories, and other environments. Cars—already ... » read more

Reliable And Efficient Compact Models For Scalable MTJ Simulation


By Fernando García Redondo, Pranay Prabhat, and Mudit Bhargava Since its discovery in 1975, Tunnel-Magneto-Resistance (TMR) has been actively investigated. From the 2000s, advances in process technologies have made the miniaturization of Magnetic Random Access Memories (MRAMs) based on TMR devices possible, together with integration into traditional CMOS processes. Introducing magneti... » read more

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